iOS tip: How to bold, italicize, or underline text in the Mail app

Want to add a littlefont-aidedemphasis to messages composed using your mail app on your iPhone or iPad? Turns out there’s an easy way to do it.

The trick? Poking around a bit in the iOS editing pop-up—you know, the one that appears when you tap and hold to select text.

Tap the BIU button to bold, italicize, or underline text in an email message.

Open the iOS Mail app, tap the Compose button, then tap out some text in the body of the message. Next, tap and hold a word, tap Select, then drag the tiny little blue handles to highlight the words you want to edit.

You should now see a small black pop-up in the Mail app with a series of editing buttons on the top, such as Cut, Copy, and Paste. If you’re using an iPad, you’ll also see a button marked BIU; on an iPhone, you’ll need to tap the arrow on the right side of the pop-up until the BIU button appears.

Once you tap the BIU button, three new buttons will pop up: Bold, Italics, and Underline. Tap one, two, or even all three of the buttons you want, and presto!

Bonus tip

A little bold, italics and underlining can do wonders for your Mail signature. When in the mail app, just tap Setting, Mail, Signature to start experimenting.